LANSING, Michigan — Gov. Rick Snyder (click here) is dissolving a nonprofit fund that came under scrutiny because money from anonymous donors was used to pay one of his top aides and some expenses for Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager.
The New Energy to Reinvest and Diversify fund is being replaced with a fund that will "go far and above" legal requirements by disclosing donors, the amounts given and an overview of expenditures, Snyder's spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said Monday. She said while the Republican governor has full confidence that the legal NERD fund met compliance and reporting requirements, criticism "had simply become an unnecessary distraction."...
... But the NERD fund attracted more attention in part because it is a 501c4 that can accept unlimited, secret donations from corporations and others. Democrats and a campaign-finance watchdog said it flew in the face of Snyder's pledge to make Michigan governor more transparent.
"This should be considered an admission of guilt by Rick Snyder," Democrat Mark Schauer, Snyder's likely opponent in 2014, said in a statement Monday. "If it's right to disclose the governor's political donors moving forward, then it was the right thing to do from day one."...
